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Solomon Hicks
About Me
Considering he's yet to turn pro, 13-year-old guitar wunderkind
Solomon (King Solomon) Hicks has a schedule many working musicians
would envy.
On Sunday, the Harlem boy plays for morning service at The Greater
Holy Tabernacle Church in the Bronx.
On Monday, Solomon jams with the veteran musicians at the New
Amsterdam Musical Association in Harlem from 7:30 p.m. to about 9 p.m.
before heading over to the Cotton Club on 125th St. to 'round
midnight.
During holidays - read that when there is no school - he and his
Momager - that's mother Holly Sampson-Hicks - will hit the Lenox
Lounge, 288 Lenox Ave., to play from midnight to 3 a.m.
Wednesdays, he practices with Jim Bartow at the Harlem School of the
Arts from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Then the Holy Name School eighth-grader and
solid B student heads home to catch up on his school work.
Once that is done, Solomon may drop by St. Nick's Pub, in Harlem's
Sugar Hill, from 9 p.m. to midnight to jam with a sit-in band that can
sometimes include some of the best musicians in the world.
Wynton Marsalis was there the other night but we missed him, Holly
said.
Thursdays, Solomon's at Sweetwaters Bar and Grill, 139th St. and Third
Ave. in the Bronx, from 7:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. He occasionally makes it
to Boys Harbor Conservatory of Music on the upper East Side, where he
jams to Afro-Cuban beat.
On Friday, King Solomon reigns again at NAMA, this time gigging with
the younger generation musicians who bill themselves as young
bloods. He may also hit 449 LA Scat, an informal gathering of
entertainment talent held in a Brownstone at 132nd St. and Lenox Ave.
Saturday morning finds Solomon at Wadleigh High School, 114th St.
between Seventh and Eighth Aves., for Jazz Mobile rehearsal from 10
a.m. to 2:30 p.m. They practice all winter to play all summer, Holly
said.
I'm exhausted and he hasn't even made it yet, said Holly.
It's a grueling schedule with a purpose: Hip hop is dead, Holly said,
and Solomon's generation will be the one to bring new music to world.
She and husband Gullins Hicks hope their son's range of experience
will give him a leg up in discovering the new music.
Veteran musician and NAMA President Willie Mack thinks she may be onto
something.
Each time I heard him I recognized marked growth in musicianship and
stage presence, Mack said.
When he's not playing about town, Solomon is as likely to be
practicing in his room on one of his six guitars.
You can play with anyone you want to on YouTube, he said.
Solomon has been playing since he was 6 years old. He started out
learning soul music from a family friend, then blues, then Jimi
Hendrix-style funk before he even learned to read music.
Read more:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2009/02/15/2009-02-
15_13yearold_musician_from_the_bronx_citys_.html#ixzz0wIVu7nDA